In Brazil, 225 people were detained in ten days, suspected of planning attacks on schools. Minister speaks of ‘epidemic’

Brazilian federal and regional security forces have arrested 225 people in the last 10 days, including several minors, to prevent attacks on schools, an unusual scourge in Brazil but one that has taken on alarming proportions recently. The information was released on Tuesday in Brasilia by Brazil’s Minister of Justice and Public Security, Flavio Dino, for whom attacks on educational institutions and plans for other similar actions cannot be considered isolated cases.

“We have 225 people arrested in 10 days, including minors. This indicates that we are facing an epidemic,” alluding to the numerous plans for bloody actions in schools discovered by Federal Police intelligence on social networks.

According to data released on Tuesday by Flavio Dino, the arrests came as part of 155 police operations carried out across Brazil during this period after plans for bloody attacks on educational institutions were found on the networks. In addition to those arrested, another 694 suspects, mostly teenagers but also a few adults, were called to testify at police stations for threatening to attack schools or encouraging others to do so.

Across Brazil, Dino added, there are currently 1,224 investigations into potential attacks on schools, the plans of which have been discovered by special agents dedicated exclusively to this investigation. And much more could be opened in the next few days, as the Escola Segura complaints channel, set up by the government a few days ago, has already received an impressive 7,473 alerts about planned attacks or threats that could be made. completed.

Flavio Dino launched a veritable war against school violence after a 25-year-old man killed four children aged four to seven with an ax two weeks ago at a kindergarten in Blumenau, a tourist town in southern Brazil. four more were wounded. A few days before this massacre, a 13-year-old student stabbed a teacher at a public school in São Paulo and wounded three other teachers and two students before being detained, followed by several more attacks on schools in several Brazilian states. , without victims. but creating widespread panic in the country.

Also on Tuesday, Lula da Silva announced €555 million in funding for action to prevent school violence, which will also be donated to regional governments. On another front, despite resistance from some platforms, the government has already succeeded in removing at least 756 social media profiles that praise the killers or encourage attacks on schools.